Download WHAT IS SOCIAL STRATIFICATION? When I think about social

Social Stratification
I.
WHAT IS SOCIAL STRATIFICATION?
When I think about social stratification, I am reminded always of a cruise ship. Thinking of the
different floors, layers, decks, and price value of the ships layout. The more you pay for your room,
the higher level deck you are on and the better the view. Poor cruise guest bunk on the bottom of
the ship without a view and amenities. However, they are not confined to their rooms or floors.
The ship is open to them, however I wouldn’t look forward to a well night’s rest in bunk beds and
rooming with 3 other people who may not be family or friends of mine.
A. Closed Stratification Systems
B. Open Stratification Systems
II. DIMENSIONS OF STRATIFICATION
A. Wealth
B. Prestige
C. Power
III. SOCIAL CLASS IN AMERICA
A. The Upper Class
1. The Upper-Upper Class
2. The Lower-Upper Class
B. The Middle Class
1. The Upper-Middle Class
2. The Lower-Middle Class
C. The Working Class
D. The Lower Class
1. The Working Poor
2. The Underclass
IV. POVERTY IN AMERICA
A. What is Poverty?
B. Who Are the Poor?
C. Why Are People Poor?
1. Blaming the Poor: Individual Characteristics
2. Blaming Society: Structural Characteristics
D. Homelessness
V. SOCIAL MOBILITY
A. Types of Social Mobility
B. What Affects Social Mobility
1. Structural Factors
2. Demographic Factors
3. Individual Factors
VI. WHY THERE ARE HAVES AND HAVE-NOTS
A. The Functionalist Perspective: Stratification Benefits Society
1. The Davis-Moore Thesis
2. Critical Evaluation
B. The Conflict Perspective: Stratification Hurts Society
1. Capitalism Benefits the Rich
2. Critical Evaluation
C. The Feminist Perspective: Women are Almost Always at the Bottom
1. Patriarchy Benefits Most Men, not Women
2. Critical Evaluation
D. The Symbolic Interactionist Perspective: People Create and Shape Stratification
1. People Have Much Control over Their Lives
2. Critical Evaluation
VII. INEQUALITY ACROSS SOCIETIES
A. Living Worlds Apart
B. Why Is Inequality Universal?
Chapter Notes
Social stratification is a hierarchical ranking of people who have different access to valued resources
such as property, prestige, power, and status. As in the Hurricane Katrina example, having resources can
mean the difference between life and death. All societies are stratified, but some more than others. An
open stratification system is based on a person’s individual achievement and allows movement up or
down. In a closed stratification system, movement from one social position to another is very limited
due to ascribed statuses such as gender, skin color, and family background. Closed systems have
historically been characterized by slavery, where some people own others, and through chattel and
domestic slavery where individuals work in unpaid servitude. Caste systems are also closed systems
where social categories are based on heredity. Open systems are based on social classes where individuals
are ranked on a number of indicators around wealth, income, and social status. Open systems are
characterized by mobility.
Sociologists use a multidimensional approach to social class that includes wealth, prestige, and power.
Wealth is the money and economic assets that a person or family owns, including property and income.
Wealth is cumulative and in the form of assets and income are earnings. Wealth produces income and is
more often passed on from generation to generation. Wealth is more unequally distributed than income.
The top five percent in the U.S. own 59 percent of all wealth and 32 percent of all income. The U.S.
economy has expanded since the late 1960s, but income inequality has increased. Between 1970 and
2006, the percent of income for the top five percent and top 20 percent rose but dropped for the other
groups.
A second dimension of stratification is prestige or respect, recognition, or regard attached to social
positions. Prestige is based on many criteria, including wealth, family background, fame, leadership,
power, occupation, and having particular skills.
A third important stratification dimension is power, the ability of individuals or groups to achieve goals,
control events, and maintain influence over others despite opposition. In every society, power is based on
social class, but there are other sources of power. Power can be based on authority or charisma.
A person’s ranking may be about equal in wealth, prestige, and power. However, a person can be high on
one stratification dimension, such as income, and low on another, such as power. This is an example of
status inconsistency, a situation where a person ranks differently on various stratification characteristics.
Social class is measured by SES or socioeconomic status. SES uses a measure of income, education, and
occupation. Four classes are used to divide American society. They include the upper-upper class which
includes old money and established money, and the lower upper class which is based on new money or
the nouveau riche. This class engages in conspicuous consumption or lavish spending as a display of
social status. The middle class is divided between upper- and lower-middle classes. The upper-middle
class lives on high earnings with stability while the lower-middle class relies on two incomes.
The working class is made up of skilled and semiskilled workers. Most have a high school degree and
have fewer opportunities for advancement. The lower class are at the bottom of the economic ladder
because they have little education, few occupational skills, work in minimum wage jobs, or are often
unemployed. The working poor are people who work at least 27 weeks a year but receive such low
wages that they live in or near poverty. They make up about 11 percent of all Americans. The working
poor are termed the near poor.
The underclass, which occupies the bottom rung of the U.S. social class ladder, is people who are
persistently poor, segregated residentially, and relatively isolated from the rest of the population. Most
rarely work, are chronically unemployed, or drift in and out of jobs. Social scientists commonly use the
concept underclass to describe inner-city minorities, but it applies to people of any race or ethnicity who
are locked in destitution and have little chance of moving out of abject poverty.
Class position determines one’s life chances or the extent to which people have positive experiences and
can secure basic necessities. Poverty is defined by absolute poverty (not having enough basic
necessities) and relative poverty (not maintaining the average standard of living). The poverty line is the
minimal level of income that the federal government considers necessary for basic subsistence. To
determine the poverty line, the Department of Agriculture (DOA) estimates the annual cost of food that
meets minimum nutritional guidelines. Those most likely to be poor include children, women, and
minorities. The feminization of poverty is used to describe the likelihood that female heads of
households will be poor.
Explanations for poverty include individual deficiencies or those who live in a culture of poverty.
A culture of poverty is a subculture whose values different than the non-poor. Other explanations argue
that poverty exists because it has functions for society. These include doing the dirty work, subsidizing
others classes by working for low wages, buying rejected goods, and absorbing the costs of societal
change.
Homelessness is due to mental illness, substance abuse, and being veterans. Single men comprise 51
percent of the homeless, families with children 30 percent, single women 17 percent, and unaccompanied
youth two percent. The homeless population is estimated to be 42 percent African-American, 39 percent
white, 13 percent Latino, four percent American Indian, and two percent Asian. Homelessness is due to a
combination of forces, some of which are beyond many peoples’ control.
Social mobility is defined as a person’s movement up or down the stratification hierarchy. Types of
mobility include horizontal (moving to the same position in society), vertical (moving up or down in
society), intergenerational (the extent to which a people moves up or down over a lifetime), and
intragenerational (the degree to which one is better or worse off than one’s parents). Mobility is affected
by structural factors such as changes in the economy, and availability of positions over a lifetime.
Demographic factors such as education and gender affect mobility. Finally individual factors such as
socialization and connections and chance affect mobility.
Functionalists argue that stratification benefits society. Davis and Moore see stratification as ensuring
that people accomplish important tasks, that some positions are more important than others, the most
qualified people fill the most important positions, and that greater rewards go to important positions.
Inequality reflects meritocracy, or being rewarded for what one does and how well rather than on the
accident of one’s birth. Critics argue functionalists ignore the fact that money is given to people other
than those most valuable to society, that stratification limits talent, ignore the role of inheritance, and
justify inequality.
Conflict theorists argue that social class and inequality are harmful to society. Marx theorized that two
classes would emerge in capitalist society the bourgeoisie, those who own the means of production, can
amass wealth and power because they own factories, land, banks, and other income-producing sources
and the proletariat or workers who sell their labor for wages, earn barely enough to keep themselves and
their families alive. As the numbers of oppressed and alienated workers increase, Marx said, the
proletariat would overthrow the bourgeoisie. Corporate welfare is an array of benefits given to large
companies at the expense of the people. Critics of conflict theory point out the high level of incomes in
developed countries. They also point out that people do not necessarily act out of primary self-interest.
Feminists argue that patriarchy benefits men more than women, discouraging even the most talented
women upward mobility. Men control more of the wealth and on a macro level the feminization of
poverty often results in women’s downward mobility. Critics argue that feminists ignore mobility for
women and offer few critiques of feminist scholarship on stratification and class.
Symbolic interactionists argue that people have much control over their lives and that class position is
reflected of how they see themselves. Critics see interactionist as weak in explaining differences in
mobility, why some people are interested in status symbols, and ignores structural factors.
Global inequality is greater than inequality in the U.S. The top two percent of individuals in the world
receive about a half of the world’s wealth while the bottom fifty percent owns one percent of global
wealth. Countries are divided into high-income or (industrial countries), middle-income (those with
developing industrial economies), and low-income countries (least industrialized with large agricultural
sectors).
Modernization theory takes the stance that low-income countries need to take on the values and beliefs
of high-income countries in order to develop. This includes education, political systems, and cultural
values.
Dependency theory holds that low-income countries are underdeveloped because they are pawns to high
income countries. They are exploited for their resources and labor. Rich countries benefit from poor
countries. World-system theory argues the system maintains economic realities where poor countries are
exploited by poor ones.
Most recently, world-system theory, similar to dependency theory, argues that “the economic realities of
the world system help rich countries stay rich while poor countries stay poor.” That is, those who
dominate the world economy (like the United States) penetrate the economies of low-income countries
because the workers depend on external markets for jobs.